"Secret Weapons Developed By Japan During WW2" Topic

"Normally, it's the Western Powers who are remembered for developing some of the most innovative and conceptual weapons of the Second World War. But when it came to experimental military technologies, Japan suffered from no shortage of ideas. Here are 11 you should know about.

Japan emerged as a world power in 1905 after its humiliating defeat of Russia. Though allied with the Entente during the First World War, Imperial Japan shifted its allegiances after being snubbed at Versailles. Starting in the 1930s, and allied with Nazi Germany, the empire began a series of aggressive campaigns at it worked to assert itself in the Pacific region. Its actions would eventually bring it into conflict with the United States, a development that proved to be its undoing.
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Shôwa Japan, knowing it was up against a superior enemy, both in terms of industrial strength and technological sophistication, accelerated its efforts to keep pace. To that end, the Japanese Imperial Army was equipped with advanced conventional weapons, specialized suicide attack weapons, and even weapons to conduct biological and chemical warfare. Indeed, Japanese military planners did not care much for the Geneva Protocol. And in fact, they assumed that banned weapons were particularly effective…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Many of these ideas never were put into practice or were of limited success. Japan had constant conflict between its army & naval leaders which didn't help in development. The Nazis sold plans for the ME 262 & Komet to Japan but they never really had an effect on the war in the Pacific.

Agree!

Amicalement
Armand

Type 93 24-inch oxygen torpedo ("Long Lance").
The USN had no inkling of its existence or true performance characteristics until late 1943.

B

biological and chemical warfare, Unit 731. Reading about that leaves you cold. Sorry strong feelings on this one.